What’s New with Sling TV?

As Sling TV grows in popularity, so does its service offering

As you may know, I am a huge fan of Sling TV; especially because it brings us one step closer to an ala carte cable TV alternative. Last week, Sling TV had a slew of announcements and updates and I think you’re going to want to hear what they are. Let’s start small.

But before we get going here, it occurs to me that you may not know what Sling TV is. If that is the case, make sure you first read “What is Sling TV“; or better yet, sign up for their free trial.

Growth

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sling TV has hit 600,000 subscribers. If 600k does not sound like a huge accomplishment to you, please keep in mind that it represents substantial growth for the company. You’ve got to remember, Sling has only been around for little more than a year. Netflix and Hulu and Amazon have had years to grow their user base and Sling will too.

Sling TV DVR

May 2017 Update: The greatly anticipated Sling TV DVR is now available on most streaming devices.

March 2017 Update: Fire TV has first crack at the Sling TV Cloud DVR. Once the model is proven out and all the bugs are squashed, the DVR functionality will be rolled out across all devices.

VICELAND

Now this is where it gets interesting.

Included in the default package of Sling TV is the History Channel 2 or H2 as it’s called by some. A&E recently announced that they will be replacing H2 for a new channel called VICELAND (free episodes available); which means it’s now coming to Sling TV as well.

““When H2 becomes Vice[land], Sling TV will carry it. The programmer is still finalizing the exact date, but I can confirm that we’ll get Vice at the same time as other distributors,” Gigamon

If the name sounds familiar, that’s because it should be. VICELAND is the official TV station of the edgy auteurs that gave us VICE News: Vice Media.

The programming of VICELAND is aimed primarily at millennials and many of the shows are reality driven shows meant to immerse the audience in a different world. For example, the show Flophouse documents the couch crashing, room-sharing, lives of aspiring stand-up comedians.

If you like television programming that thinks outside the box, this is as good as it gets.

Extra News Channels

Sling TV also announced that it would add two new channels as well. The first one is called NEWSY, a self-styled unbiased news channel that covers national and international news. The second channel is called FLAMA, which is a network aimed at providing comedy and entertainment for the Latino community.

All of these new channels have been added to Sling TV’s default package for free; and if you ask me, free is pretty good. But it gets even more exciting than that.

Local Now

Sling TV is adding something called Local Now to its lineup. Local Now is a channel that provides localized news, weather, sports, and even traffic updates for approximately 207 different markets. Local Now draws works with a handful of new sources and services, including: The Weather Channel, the Associated Press, SportRadar, TrafficLand, and INRIX.

What makes Local Now really cool is that is determines what information you get from your IP address. No need to set your location, no need to search for an update. However, as cool as Local Now is, there is still one piece of news that I think is the most exciting of all.

March Madness on Sling TV

From March 13 to April 12, Sling TV will bundle truTV into its default package as part of a free preview. Why is this important? In Sling TV’s default package you get access to TBS and TNT; two of the three March Madness broadcasters. Guess which channel is the third March Madness broadcaster? That’s right, it’s truTV.

By adding truTV to its default lineup, you can now watch every single March Madness game with Sling TV (and an Antenna). Click here for the full March Madness Schedule.

Think about it. $20 for Sling TV and you get every single March Madness game. Not only is that tremendously exciting for us basketball fans, it’s also a incredible coup for Sling TV and an excellent play to sports fans.